army corpshttps://www.desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/8966/all
enArmy Corps Fast Tracks Port of Morrow Coal Export Terminalhttps://www.desmogblog.com/2012/09/20/army-corps-fast-tracks-port-morrow-coal-export-terminal
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/phpThumb_generated_thumbnail.png?itok=aXvQAaLa" width="455" height="302" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Army Corps of Engineers has decided that the transfer of coal from trains onto barges in Oregon’s Columbia River is not worthy of a full environmental impact study. For now.</p>
<p>At issue is the <a href="http://morrowpacific.com/">Morrow Pacific Project</a>, a coal transfer facility that is a key pivot point in Ambre Energy’s plans to export American coal to Asia. We’ve covered this project before (here's all the <a href="http://desmogblog.com/coal-train-boardman-epa-warns-significant-public-health-threats-northwest-coal-export-proposal">background on the Morrow Pacific Project</a>), as well as the broader strategy of coal companies to ship American coal – much coming from taxpayer-owned public lands – <a href="http://desmogblog.com/exporting-coal-struggling-u-s-coal-industry-trying-stay-relevant-shipping-through-northwest">off to China and other overseas buyers</a>.</p>
<p>Basically, Ambre Energy (an Australian coal and shale company) is planning on shipping coal by train from the strip mines in the Powder River Basin to this Morrow Pacific facility at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Oregon. There the coal would be offloaded onto barges – at the rate of two per day at full capacity – which would then float down the Columbia River to Port Westward (roughly 30 miles north of Portland), where it would again be transferred onto massive Panamax vessels for shipment to Asia.</p>
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<p><a href="http://morrowpacific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MorrowPacificMap-large.jpg" style="color: rgb(255, 205, 51); "><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/MorrowPacificMap-large.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 714px; " /></a></p>
<p>When we last <a href="http://desmogblog.com/coal-train-boardman-epa-warns-significant-public-health-threats-northwest-coal-export-proposal">wrote about the Boardman transfer facility</a> back in April, the Army Corps was soliciting public comments on the proposed project. Now that the roughly 30,000 comments have been processed, Scott Learn of <em>The Oregonian</em> is reporting that the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/09/army_corps_keeps_ambre_energys.html">Army Corps is keeping the project on the “fast track” for approval</a>.</p>
<p>This “fast track” will involve an “environmental assessment,” but as Learn reports, “that stops short of the full-blown, years-long environmental impact statement that environmental groups wanted.”</p>
<p>This lighter review should take only a few months to complete, and doesn’t require a draft to be released to the public for comment. It also bucks the advice of the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Environmental Protection Agency (<span class="caps">EPA</span>), which in its advisory role had submitted public comments (<a href="http://media.oregonlive.com/environment_impact/other/EPA%20letter%20about%20PEIS.PDF"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>) that posed serious questions about the potential impacts of the project.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Transporting and transloading up to 8.8 million tons of coal with eleven trains, twelve loaded barge tows, and two Panamax ships per week has the <strong>potential to significantly impact human health and the environment</strong>. Two of our primary preliminary concerns relate to the potential for adverse effects from project-related coal dust and diesel pollution. <strong>Coal dust is a human health concern because it can cause pneumoconiosis, bronchitis, and emphysema. Coal dust is an environmental concern because it may settle on water, soil, or vegetation and impair biological processes such as photosynthesis</strong>. In addition, coal dust has been shown to cause tumors in experimental animals. <strong>We are similarly concerned about diesel emissions because they can cause lung damage, aggravate existing respiratory disease such as asthma and are thought to be a human carcinogen</strong>. Diesel emissions have a high potential to impact people who are sensitive to the health effects of fine particles (e.g. children, the elderly, and those with existing heart of lung disease, asthma or other respiratory problems)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Besides the public health implications, the <span class="caps">EPA</span> also expressed concerns about impacts on listed species and critical habitats, as well as the project’s potential contributions to “cumulatively significant impacts” like climate change. </p>
<p>It is yet unclear whether the Army Corps' review will include these broader impacts, or if it will focus specficially to the construction of the terminal and loading docks themselves, and nothing that happens up- or downstream (literally and figuratively).</p>
<p>Predictably, the “Environmental Review” that Ambre Energy commissioned and published in June, and updated in August to address the concerns raised by the public comments, takes the narrow view. That report was prepared by <a href="http://www.andersonperry.com/">Anderson Perry <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Associates</a>, and dismisses many of the environmental issues as “beyond scope” of the review.</p>
<p>There would be precedent for a full-blown environmental impact assessment. The Seattle office of the Army Corps is currently working on full <span class="caps">EIS</span> reports for two Washington export terminals that are currently under review. There is still a chance that the Portland corps’ office will pursue the full <span class="caps">EIS</span>, if, as Learn reports, “they find potentially significant environmental impacts during the course of their review.” </p>
<p>For their part, Ambre Energy is trying to quell concerns about pollution by <a href="http://morrowpacific.com/myth-vs-fact/3">suggesting that</a> “[b]ulk commodities such as grain and wood products have been shipped by barge on the Columbia River for decades.” Of course, coal is dirtier than grain and wood products.</p>
<p>We’ll stay on this story whenever there are big developments, but if you want to follow along blow-by-blow, you can’t do better than <a href="http://connect.oregonlive.com/user/slearn/posts.html">Scott Learn’s consistently great and thorough reporting for <em>The Oregonian</em></a>.</p>
<p><em>Images: <a href="http://morrowpacific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MorrowPacificMap-large.jpg">Ambre Energy</a></em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9038">port of morrow</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8959">Boardman</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8958">coal exports</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8961">ambre energy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8962">ambre</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10250">morrow pacific project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10251">morrow pacific</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10252">coal trains</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8960">Columbia River</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9356">Army Corps of Engineers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8966">army corps</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10256">Anderson Perry &amp; Associates</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10257">The Oregonian</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10258">Scott Learn</a></div></div></div>Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:44:41 +0000Ben Jervey6535 at https://www.desmogblog.comCoal Train to Boardman: EPA Warns of "Significant" Public Health Threats in Northwest Coal Export Proposalhttps://www.desmogblog.com/coal-train-boardman-epa-warns-significant-public-health-threats-northwest-coal-export-proposal
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/110326007Paul_K_Anderson_Coal-copy1.jpg?itok=WFUQFdM5" width="319" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>As demand for coal in the United States has cooled off in recent years, coal mining companies have been scrambling to deliver their dirty loads to customers abroad. But what does this mean for communities along the transportation routes, particularly at the ports and export terminals where the coal is offloaded from trains and onto boats?<br /><br />
The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> <span class="caps">EPA</span>, for one, is warning of the potential for “significant impacts to public health” in one such port town.</p>
<p>Coal exports have more than doubled over the past six years, and are at their highest levels in over two decades. According to an <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEPo52y3iAhPhyDU_Ir5N3pz6QZA?docId=b1e41839ca5f47e5a39e44aec019c633">Associated Press evaluation of Energy Information Agency coal data</a>, more than 107 million tons of coal were exported in 2011.<br /><br />
But that’s a small drop in the bucket (or lump in the stocking? sorry, couldn’t resist) of what coal companies hope to export in the very near future. (Farron Cousins covered the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/exporting-emissions-coal-supplies-heading-overseas-pollution-will-hurt-everyone">coal export trend here on DeSmogBlog </a>earlier this year.)</p>
<p>Nowhere is the push to export coal being felt more than in the Pacific Northwest, where there are currently plans to ship more than 100 million tons each year, <a href="http://daily.sightline.org/projects/northwest-coal-exports/">according to the Sightline Institute</a>.</p>
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<p>Of course, all of this coal would have to actually get from land to sea, and so companies are working to open up export terminals throughout the Pacific Northwest. One such proposal is for the town of Boardman, Oregon, in a facility formerly called the <a href="http://www.portofmorrow.com/">Port of Morrow</a>. (I’m working on a more comprehensive post about the overall state of coal exports, coal trains, and the potential export terminals throughout the country, especially in the Northwest, so stay tuned for that.)</p>
<p>The company behind the Boardman terminal plans is <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coyote_Island_Terminal_LLC">Coyote Island Terminal <span class="caps">LLC</span></a>, a subsidiary of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ambre_Energy">Ambre Energy</a>, and Australian coal and oil shale company that is one of the major players in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> coal export game. In order to open up the Boardman port, Ambre needs approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is currently reviewing the application. Here’s how the project is described in the Army Corps’ Public Notice (<a href="http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/regulatory/docs/notices/NWP-2012-56-ext.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The proposed project involves construction of a new transloading facility for bringing coal in from Montana and Wyoming by rail and transferring it to barges on the Columbia River at the Port of Morrow…</p>
<p>The coal would be shipped down the Columbia to Port Westward and loaded onto ocean-going “Panamax” vessels to be shipped to Asia. Best management practices would be used throughout the transportation of the coal to contain coal dust, including enclosed warehouses, barges, conveyors, and loading equipment. Initially, approximately 3.85 million tons of coal would be shipped through the facility to Asia each year. At maximum capacity, the facility would be able to handle 8.8 million tons. That would translate to approximately 5 trains to Port of Morrow, 5.5 loaded barge tows from Port of Morrow to Port Westward, and 1 Panamax ship to Asia per week initially, increasing to 11 trains, 12 loaded barge tows, and 3 Panamax ships per week at full build out. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, in short: in Boardman, coal would be offloaded from trains onto barges in the Columbia River, where it would float down to Port Westward, Oregon (roughly 30 miles north of Portland), where it would be loaded onto big ocean vessels for shipment to Asia.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20shot%202012-04-25%20at%204.25.45%20PM.png" style="width: 560px; height: 403px; " /></p>
<p>Some residents of Boardman, with a population of about 3,000, seem welcome to the proposal. A New York Times article from a couple of weeks back quotes a worker from a hay fumigation warehouse that would be just a few hundred feet from the coal facility, saying, “I don't think there will be any environmental impact anyway.”</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">EPA</span> isn't so sure of that. </p>
<p>On April 5, the <span class="caps">EPA</span> submitted public comments (<a href="http://media.oregonlive.com/environment_impact/other/EPA%20letter%20about%20PEIS.PDF"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>) about the Boardman proposal under the National Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Air Act, and some red flags were raised.<br /><br />
The <span class="caps">EPA</span> raised concerns about a number of issues, including impacts on listed species, critical habitats, and aquatic resources, as well as the project’s potential contributions to “cumulatively significant impacts” like climate change and the drift of particulates, mercury, and ozone from Asia to the United States.<br /><br />
But most alarming are the agency’s concerns about public health. From their comments:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Transporting and transloading up to 8.8 million tons of coal with eleven trains, twelve loaded barge tows, and two Panamax ships per week has the <strong>potential to significantly impact human health and the environment</strong>. Two of our primary preliminary concerns relate to the potential for adverse effects from project-related coal dust and diesel pollution. <strong>Coal dust is a human health concern because it can cause pneumoconiosis, bronchitis, and emphysema</strong>. Coal dust is an environmental concern because it may settle on water, soil, or vegetation and impair biological processes such as photosynthesis. <strong>In addition, coal dust has been shown to cause tumors in experimental animals</strong>. We are similarly concerned about diesel emissions because they can cause lung damage, aggravate existing respiratory disease such as asthma and are thought to be a human carcinogen. <strong>Diesel emissions have a high potential to impact people who are sensitive to the health effects of fine particles (e.g. children, the elderly, and those with existing heart of lung disease, asthma or other respiratory problems)</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <span class="caps">EPA</span>’s role in the Corps’ permitting process, however, is only advisory, so the Corps can choose to accept or reject the agency’s recommendation.</p>
<p>If you would like to submit a public comment about the proposed project, send an email or letter to this address:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span class="caps">U.S.</span> Army Corps of Engineers<br />
Mr. Steve Gagnon; <a href="mailto:steven.k.gagnon@usace.army.mil">steven.k.gagnon@usace.army.mil</a><br /><span class="caps">PO</span> Box 2946<br />
Portland, <span class="caps">OR</span> 97208-2946</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You must reference this Corps number: <strong><span class="caps">NWP</span>-2012-56</strong></p>
<p>The public comment period ends May 5, 2012.</p>
<p>More details are available in the Army Corps’ Public Notice (<a href="http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/regulatory/docs/notices/NWP-2012-56-ext.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>).</p>
<p><br /><em>Photo: Paul K. Anderson, via <a href="http://www.coaltrainfacts.org/multimedia">CoalTrainFacts.org</a></em></p>
<p><em>Map: <span class="caps">US</span> Army Corps of Engineers (<a href="http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/regulatory/docs/notices/NWP-2012-56-ext.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>)</em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/761">china</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/958">Oregon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1471">Environmental Protection Agency</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4175">health</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6444">public health</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7372">export</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7769">army corp of engineers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8242">Rail</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8956">coal train</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8957">trains</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8958">coal exports</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8959">Boardman</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8960">Columbia River</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8961">ambre energy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8962">ambre</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8963">coyote island terminal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8964">northwest</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8965">pacific northwest</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8966">army corps</a></div></div></div>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:45:00 +0000Ben Jervey6226 at https://www.desmogblog.com